If many Gazan Palestinians are afraid of Hamas, is that true in the Palestinian diaspora too?

[gulliver]

There's the psychological concept of "displacement." Your boss yells at you, so you yell at the dog. You're afraid of one, so you pick on the other. You pick on the easy target. Happens all the time. Very easy to not notice you're doing it.

Are a lot of these protesters out there "making a show of Palestinian loyalty" out of fear of crazies in their midst? Do Canadian Palestinian marchers not show the Canadian flag because they know there about three or four Hamas "Islamist Charles Mansons" in the crowd and they don't want trouble? Do Palestinians and their TikTok likers "stand up" to Australian Opera Houses, London business districts, and even Jews because righting the Islamist house (fumigating for Columbine-profile, incel-like nuts) is too scary?

Protesting people and countries that won't do anything to you is, frankly, pretty easy and safe.

[yardwork]

1. Interesting question. By extension, does that mean the protesters don't fear Jews?

If pro-Palestinian protesters fear HAMAS but not Israel or Jewish people who are the targets of the protests, what does that say?

Does it mean that Israel is not as powerful as pro-Palestinian protesters want us to think?

[gulliver]

2. It could be something like Stockholm syndrome for the actual Palestinians

There are probably a significant number among the Palestinian wise people who know that Israel would be a great friend. But they can't make friends with Israel, because the sweaty, incel-like nutballs in their neighborhood have AKs and mistakenly think of themselves as religious patriots.

[moniss]

3. I do not have a particular take other than

to say that the Palestinian refugee camps/Palestinians in the various countries all have slightly different aspects to their situation. The camps in Lebanon and Palestinians in Lebanon face problems from the hard right factions in Lebanon. The ones in the other countries like Syria and Jordan face situational things too that are individual to them. So it is not a straight forward support Hamas/fear Hamas thing. It can be fluid and can fluctuate back and forth over the years.

There are over 50+ camps throughout the region and only about half are in the West Bank and Gaza. Only a little more than 1/3 of UN registered refugees live in the camps themselves with most of the rest living in the areas around the camps. The total number of refugees is now over 6 million and the Palestinian population living in Israel itself is about 2 million. Total estimated population for Israel is estimated this year to be a little under 10 million.

I'm giving these numbers to give an idea of the impossibility of the world thinking that it's possible to just keep such a large number of people in limbo for decades. Also to give the idea of how widely dispersed the camps are and to refute those who claim that the surrounding countries haven't provided haven/support for the Palestinians. I'm no fan of those countries but at the same time do they not have a right to say to the world "how long should our country have to provide for these hundreds of thousands and deal with it all?" Many of these camps go all the way back to 1948 etc.

It is astounding and disgusting that these millions of people were displaced from their homes, land, businesses etc. by force and decree and were promised by the UN member nations that there would be compensation and that issues would be quickly resolved regarding the right to return/citizenship rights etc. to villages etc. where they and their ancestors had lived. So here we are 75 years later and we have millions of people being told to "just wait" some more. No actual official nation to be a citizen of, living hand to mouth in a camp when your grandfather had been a successful businessman or farmer etc. but everything was taken or he had to flee for his life because the "new tenants" were rampaging and doing ethnic cleansing and in exchange you got a handful of empty promises from the big powers that run the world.

It is the utmost in the arrogance of power for the Powers that Be to think you can just keep that situation going forever and ever.

[gulliver]

4. I think we're overthinking this.

The idea that a small minority of activists can push around a large majority of "just want to get on with life" folks should be established conclusively by now. Ten numbskull birds can turn the whole flock. Look at the Republican Party. Only one needed. There's a whole complex history of the Republican Party and conservatism, and hundreds of millions who have aligned with it for years, through countless individual stories of victory and grievance. And poof, one Trump and they go haywire.